Egghead In Space

By Chris Dewhurst

Egghead In Space was reviewed back in EUG #66 and is the story of a little egg-shaped character on a quest to retrieve his disc full of his favourite BBC/Electron computer games. The game has something of a chequered history and, growing rather frustrated with our inability to get our hands on the original release, we indicated in that review that we would shortly publish it in EUG. This issue we have, bringing you the full joy of bouncing Eggheadedness.

Why did it take so long? Well, the game was originally scheduled for release by Cronosoft in 2004 [Gasp! Was it really that long ago? - Ed] but some duplication problems (which nobody ever really got to the bottom of!) meant that it only surfaced as a DFS disc image download hidden in some obscure corner of the site. As of 1st February 2010 however, Jonathan Cauldwell (the game's original author) made Egghead In Space freely available on his own site, and both Spectrum and BBC/Electron versions of the game were withdrawn from sale by Cronosoft.

As it's now not available anywhere else for sale, and hasn't been for almost a year, I've decided to include it on this EUG and hope that Cronosoft does not really mind.

The Plot

Remember how those aliens paid Egghead a visit a few years ago leaving his house in such a mess he
had to go around clearing up after them?

Obviously that wasn't un oeuf, because they're back again and this time they've abducted Egghead's favourite BBC/Electron games.

Quick witted as ever, our "dairydevil" hero managed to "scramble" aboard one of the alien rocket ships before it took off for planet Zog and hitched a ride back with the extra-terrestrials to retrieve his precious software collection. Upon arriving, Egghead managed to teleport into the underground labyrinth and that was when his problems really began...

The Mission

Move Egghead around the screens leaping from platform to platform in search of the disc containing the computer games. Try not to fall too far as eggs are delicate, and avoid any green slime you may encounter. On the other hand, the green bubbles that rise from the slime are not deadly. Numerous items can be collected along the way to help Egghead in his quest. For example, a source of light will help illuminate a darkened room, and some sort of weapon might scare off some of those aliens. Once the computer disc has been located, Egghead needs to acquire some transport back to Earth.

Game Controls

A "poultry" three keys are required to control Egghead.

Q - Left, W - Right, SPACE - Jump

Egghead can jump straight up, left, right and be manouevered in mid-air. To pause and restart the game press RETURN.

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking!

Hints

Egghead can ride on boxes and bubbles

The code for the door is hiding somewhere - and it changes every game

The water pistol cannot be fired - but it will take out three aliens blocking a route

Aim for the rocket

Egghead In jQuery

Do you like pointless little animations based on famous BBC/Electron games? We certainly do. After all, how else do you suggest we learn the modern languages like jQuery? Click on Egghead and watch him go!